Eric Holzman’s paintings share an atmospheric space that is deep, suggestive, sensual, and in tension with the surface. His subjects are both obscured and revealed, as if conjured back momentarily from the foggy ruins of time. And yet, Holzman’s landscapes share an intimacy and empathy for their subjects and assert themselves into the present, their material ethereality encoding a more substantive timeless spiritual presence.
A graduate of Tyler School of Art (BFA) and Yale University (MFA), Holzman has since participated in numerous solo and curated group exhibitions at galleries in New York, Houston, Boston, Antwerp, and elsewhere. He had a solo show at CRS in 2006.
He is a past recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship as well as grants from the Tiffany Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Studio Space, P.S. 1. Holzman has served on the faculties of Bard College, Pratt Institute, Chicago Art Institute, Penn University, Boston University, and others.
“I always begin by painting from life. Through a relatively three-dimensional rendering of form in space, relative to most modernism, I evoke an empathetic relationship with my subject. I aim for intimacy without sacrificing my subjects’ dignity. Capturing something of the play between life and death in a subject creates tension and vulnerability. As with a portrait, my subjects are usually placed toward the center of the canvas, so my pictures are simply conceived, but full of movement. Often, the bottoms of my canvases support a lot of weight. I can take perceptual liberties with color and design, as I am amazed and inspired by eastern art, which always infers the presence of the gods, or of the sacred. I am not a realist, though I aspire in part to be one. I am called to stretch pictorial representation, while remaining grounded in perception. I want to express the mysterious snap of each successive moment as the miracle of existence is revealed.” — Eric Holzman